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Touted as "part biography, part memoir, part critical study, and part exploration of sexual politics in our time," Erica Jong on Henry Miller is indeed a jumble of attitudes and voices--some sentimental, some pedantic. Jong's original intention in writing the book was to chronicle her friendship with Henry Miller. After the publication of her first novel, Fear of Flying, in 1974, Jong received "an enthusiastic fan letter" from a then 83-year-old Miller; the two began a correspondence that lasted until Miller's death in 1980. Jong sees Miller as "a kindred spirit," and she spends...
...Jong's larger project in Erica Jong on Henry Miller is to explain Miller's importance--and perhaps her own importance, by extension--to American literary history. Jong summarizes her intent at the end of a chapter titled "Why Must We Read Miller? Miller as Sage": "I want to send you back to read him--with an open head and heart." Unfortunately, though she makes some interesting claims (e.g. "Ultimately Miller can be a stronger force for feminism than for male chauvinism."), few heads and hearts will be opened by her critical commentary. Jong quotes a passage from Miller...
...complexity of the American feminist debate on pornography. Complicated theoretical issues are dismissed with reductive summaries: "The pen, as so many feminist critics have shown, has been treated as analogous to the penis in our literary culture. This accounts for the trouble that feminists, myself included, have with Henry Miller." Jong urges her readers to be "smarter than...two-bit polemists...[to] understand the war between the sexes so that we can end it." But instead of giving an intelligent reading of the "feminist" climate surrounding Henry Miller's reception, she defends Miller against a vaguely defined "feminist" lynch...
...anecdotal level, Erica Jong on Henry Miller serves a useful purpose. Read the book if you want to know what the inside of Henry Miller's house looked like, which wife he really liked best, or whether he agreed with Anals Nin's characterization of June Miller in Henry and June. The majority of the letters Jong and Miller wrote back and forth are published in the book, and they are worth reading. Beyond the self-congratulation and mutual admiration, the letters provide insight into the two writers' conceptions of their work and the changing world around them. Also useful...
...comprehensive reading of Henry Miller and American culture, Erica Jong on Henry Miller is disappointing. Anais Nin's The Novel of the Future and Otto Rank's Art and Artist: Creative Urge and Personality Development (with Nin's introduction), both published 25 years ago, better illustrate Miller's perceptions of the artist's role in society and society's view of the artist Henry Miller. Jong warns her readers about the biographies of Miller currently in publication: "Henry Miller's recent biographers try, willy-nilly, to fit him into preexisting patterns; and when they fail, they blame him. But Henry...